POCKET EDITION 



OF 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
UNITED 5TATE5 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

MERRILL E. GATES, LLD., L.H.D., 

Formerly President of Rutgers College, later 
President of Amherst College 



PUBLISHED BY 

THL NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR 
CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



POCKET EDITION 



OF 



THL CONSTITUTION OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

MERRILL E. GATES, LLD., L.H.D., 

Formerly President of Rutgers College, later 
President of Amherst College 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR 
CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



K^rfr 



w 






INTRODUCTION 



Every one who values his property can give some account 
of his own possessions. You know what you own. You 
mean to keep clear your title to it. Every true American 
values his own personal rights and his political freedom 
even more highly than he values his property. Our fore- 
fathers, 130 years ago, made an instrument designed to pro- 
tect their rights and ours. "To establish justice," and main- 
tain fair treatment and an equal opportunity for all; "to 
promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity," is our wish, our 
national will, our steadfast purpose as true Americans, now, 
as it was four generations ago when great Americans 
founded our government. 

THE TITLE-DEED OF FREEDOM 

The Constitution of the United States is the working- 
man's charter to protect his personal liberty. It is the title- 
deed by which each one of us holds his personal freedom, 
his property, and his right to home and to the family life 
which is dear to us all. If you own your home, if you have 
a title to a piece of land and a house, you take care of your 
title-deed. You know well what the title is worth to you, 
and you value it. Once in a while you read it over. You 
take care not to lose it ! We have, each one of us Amer- 
icans, a title-deed to a share in the blessings of the best gov- 
ernment in the world. And the great fundamental law of 
that government, the Constitution of the United States, 
every citizen of the United States ought to know. Every 
citizen ought to have a copy of it within reach. Have you 
ever studied your title-deed to all the rights of an American, 
— the Constitution ? How long since you read it through ? 

In these months, when so many millions of people are 
suffering and dying for lack of a stable government of just 
laws, well administered, you ought to refresh your memory 
by reading again, and again giving thanks for those guar- 



antees of justice, personal freedom and equal rights which 
are given you in that fundamental law of our land, "The 
Constitution. " All the people should know it and defend 
it, for it was made and it is maintained by our "sovereign 
power, the people of the United States;" and you are one 
of these people. 

STABILITY AND GROWTH 

If a person has lived in good health for a hundred years, 
we say, "he has a good constitution. " The Constitution of 
the United States has been in successful operation now for 
more than a hundred and thirty years. Ours is the oldest 
republic among the great self-governing states of the world. 
Under our Constitution we have grown, from a little experi- 
mental republic of four millions, to be a world-power of a 
hundred and ten millions. The great Americans who 
planned our government were wise and far-seeing, and they 
gave us a foundation-law which has the surest promise of 
continued life, a constitution founded on principles of jus- 
tice that are stable and unchanging, like the solid earth 
under our feet; yet a constitution which within itself pro- 
vides for change and growth to meet the needs of expand- 
ing life. It can be amended. It has been amended, when- 
ever the people of the United States became deliberately 
convinced that a change was needed. Yet our Constitution, 
like other living and growing things, changes not by a 
stroke — not by a revolution or a threat — but by the delib- 
erate growth of a conviction on the part of the great mass 
of the people, a conviction which expresses itself in the 
methods provided for by the Constitution itself, so that 
successive amendments as required by the people may al- 
ways insure to us a government "deriving its just powers 
from the consent of the governed." 

It is this great basal law of our land, it is the Constitu- 
tion, that secures to every working-man the wages he earns, 
the savings he has made and invested, the home and and the 
property he has acquired and owns. That "fair opportunity 
for every one," that "equality before the law," which is our 
American boast and birthright, is secured to us by the Con- 
stitution. 



THE "STATE" AND "GOVERNMENT" 

To enforce and maintain justice, there must be a govern- 
ment, based on law, and obeying law. Every state must 
have a government. 

The word "state" means something stable, something that 
stands, endures. The state is "society organized to maintain 
justice." It is society stabilized — kept steady — estab- 
lished — not whirling in socialistic anarchy, like Russia in 
1918-19 — not overturned in ceaseless revolutions, even if 
revolutionists do profess to aim at liberty. An established 
government must have definite organs provided for in its 
fundamental law — offices, and officers through whom the 
state acts in governing — in maintaining order and admin- 
istering justice. Order and justice must be maintained not 
at one man's caprice, or by one man's will, but by uniform 
laws applicable to all. Whatever name may be given to a 
state, its government must have definite organs for each 
of the three great branches of the state's activity : the Leg- 
islative (to make the laws), the Executive (to execute and 
administer the laws), and the Judiciary (courts and judges 
to interpret and apply the laws and the principles of justice 
to the particular cases that arise). Emperors and Kings 
who claim absolute sovereign power and authority for their 
own arbitrary will, the world has done with ! But every 
independent state must have sovereign power and exclusive 
authority over a definite territory — a distinctly bounded 
portion of the earth's surface. And every state that en- 
dures long enough to have a name and a place among the 
states of the world, must have a definite form of govern- 
ment in which these three essential functions of govern- 
ment are fixed, and their form and their functions defined, 
in a constitution, written or unwritten. 

THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF THE STATE 

Our Constitution is the great, basal, fundamental law of 
the State, which defines the objects of good government, 
and fixes the form and defines the powers of the organs 
of government. At the same time, it secures to the indi- 



vidual his rights as against any attempted aggression by 
the government. All the officers of our government, from 
the highest to the lowest, must swear allegiance to the 
Constitution ; and they all depend upon the Constitution for 
their authority. All their powers are derived from the 
Constitution. In all the self-governing nations of the world, 
the fundamental law, the constitution, derives its authority 
and its power from the people. Other laws are made by 
the legislative bodies which have been created for that pur- 
pose by the Constitution. But the Constitution itself is the 
work and the sovereign will of the people. "We, the people 
of the United States" — (and not the several states or their 
legislatures) — "we, the people of the" whole "United 
States * * * do ordain and establish this Constitution 
for the United States of America," said our people when 
they founded our Government. And all the changes that 
have been made in our fundamental Organic Law by the 
eighteen amendments adopted since 1789, have been made 
by the sovereign people of the United States. Always our 
government has rested upon the will of the people as ex- 
pressed in our Constitution. 

GOVERNMENT BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE 

It is not too much to say that the whole civilized world 
has now adopted as the basis of government the sentences 
from the Declaration of Independence which in 1776 pre- 
ceded our Constitution. All progressive nations now hold 
that "instituted among men to secure certain inalienable 
rights" such as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" — 
"governments derive their just powers from the consent of 
the governed." 

Why do we in the United States not live in constant fear 
of revolution? Because our government, our Constitution, 
expresses the will of the people, is the work of the people, 
and can be amended as the deliberate and intelligent con- 
victions of the people call for changes and enact amend- 
ments. Why should our people fear revolution, when with 
us the majority rules, and rules under the authority of a 
Constitution which more than a mere majority of the people 



have made and approved, and can amend? Why should 
our people ever desire a revolution, while our Constitution 
provides for a peaceful and orderly method for correcting 
abuses of power or infringements of rights? We have, 
already, the liberty which oppressed peoples rebel in order 
to attain. We have that "government by the people" in 
accordance with laws of their own making through their 
chosen representatives, which expresses the just will of a 
self-determining people. 

The Constitution is the foundation of our Government. 
As the foundation of a house, or of any large building, is 
so laid out as to bear the weight and sustain the strain of 
the building which it underlies and upholds, the foundation 
is a kind of ground-plan or outline of the superstructure. 
Just so, the constitution of a state is the enduring, not 
easily changed foundation-law which gives shape and sta- 
bility to the state, and defines and limits the form, the 
function and the powers of each of the organs of that state. 
The state is always "society jurally organized," — "society 
organized to maintain justice." 

DEMOCRACY BUILT UPON JUSTICE 

What is justice? Who can give a better definition than 
the one given by the Roman Law in Ulpian's words: 
"Constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuendif 
that is, "the steadfast, unchanging will and purpose to give 
to every one his due." It gives confidence, to feel that for 
two thousand years the leaders of civilization, from the men 
of Athens and Rome to the founders of our Constitution 
and the men in khaki of our own time, who have been 
ready to give their lives to defend this idea of justice — that 
through all these centuries, the leaders of the world's civ- 
ilization have held steadily to this idea of justice, which 
has been once more gloriously vindicated by the war just 
closing. Our Constitution makes it possible for us in the 
United States to say and to feel : "Here in America every 
man has a fair chance, and knows that he has it." And 
that is true, free democracy. That means justice and free- 
dom for all. That spirit, worked out in law and maintained 



in administration, is the essence of the true democracy 
which it is safe for the world to profess and to practice. 

To preserve liberty, there must be voluntary and intelli- 
gent obedience to law. To insure the administration of jus- 
tice by a state, there must always be a fundamental law, a 
constitution that defines and stabilizes government. For 
the peoples of those lands which are fragments of the 
broken empires of Austria and Turkey — for the Balkai. 
States and the newly created republics in Europe, as well as 
for distracted Russia, — a constitution wisely framed and 
heartily accepted by the people of each state, is still the 
great need. 

CONSTITUTIONS AND THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY 

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the peoples of 
Europe were demanding constitutions to protect them 
against the exactions and injustice of kings and emperors. 
Now, constitutions are needed and are demanded in many 
parts of Europe and Asia, not so much to limit kings and 
emperors, as to make sure that when the people rule them- 
selves, they shall rule in justice and without tyrannical 
abuse of power by the majority. In democracies and re- 
publics, no less than in monarchies, personal rights and 
property rights need to be recognized and the organs and 
methods of government need to be defined in the funda- 
mental law, in constitutions; and these rights of all the 
people need to be respected and maintained in administra- 
tive government. No state, whether monarchy, empire, 
democracy or republic, can exist and hold a place among 
the nations of the earth, without the accepted reign of law. 
No free state can exist without the voluntary acceptance by 
the people of self-imposed obedience to law — to moral law 
and to enacted law. Lawlessness is not liberty! Anarchy 
is not freedom! No freedom is possible except under the 
reign of law. "A fundamental law forbidding class, sec- 
tional and inspirational legislation, is the indispensable 
guarantee of personal liberty, and the necessary basis of 
true social justice." The most abject and terrible slavery 
the world has ever known has been the tyranny of lawless 



majorities in the exercise of unlimited power. Witness the 
"reign of terror" during the French Revolution, and the 
tyrannical class "autocracy of the proletariat ,, dominated by 
the bolshevist socialists, Lenine and Trotzky! With us in 
the United States, "the majority rules," we say truly. But 
the majority has no more right to rule unjustly, than has an 
autocratic monarchy. The majority has a right to do what 
it pleases only when it pleases to do what is right! A mere 
majority vote cannot make injustice just ! It cannot make 
a wrong deed right ! And the Constitution protects you in 
your rights when you are in the minority — even when you 
are a minority of one ! 

OUR COVENANTED RIGHTS 

Read carefully the first ten Amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, — often called our "Bill of Rights" — which were de- 
clared in force on Dec. 15, 1791. See how carefully they 
guarantee to you and to every other citizen of the United 
States, precisely those personal rights, that protection by 
law, which is lacking in Russia, and which makes life worth 
living where good government prevails. The Constitution 
is your safeguard. In Russia, for lack of a constitution; 
accepted and obeyed, soviet rule permits houses to be en- 
tered, ransacked and gutted, under pretence of authorized 
right of search (see Art. IV, Amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, p. 38) ; men and women to be arrested, imprisoned 
indefinitely, or executed without trial (see Amendments, 
Arts. V, VI, VII and VIII, pp. 38, 39) ; no property rights 
are respected; crops cannot be raised; factories are taken 
from their owners under the pretence of using them for the 
common profit, but are ruined and cease to operate. 

The existence of free governments, with those "covenanted 
securities" which they afford to liberty, is no happy acci- 
dent. No one object which men have proposed to them- 
selves has called for such long-continued, strenuous, yet 
ennobling and beneficent effort as has the establishment of 
liberty in institutions and laws, such as protect us under 
our Constitution. Let not us who are "to the manner 
born," undervalue our birthright. Too seldom do we recall 



the cost to earlier generations of the contests which have 
made possible such a government as ours. We forget the 
long-continued, life-consuming struggle by which there has 
been won and established for us that constitutional liberty 
which is the proudest heirloom of the English-speaking race. 

BATTLE-MONUMENTS IN LEGAL TERMS. 

The noblest battle-monuments in the world are to be 
seen in certain of the customs and the legal terms in which 
are fossilized the history of centuries of soul-animating 
struggles for the establishment and the defence of human 
rights by law and in political institutions. 

"Trial by a jury of one's peers." What an enormous 
advance in the conception of the worth of the average man 
it chronicles ! What obstinate and determined struggles to 
keep this the law of the land, so that not the weight of the 
sword or of the long purse, not the will of the privileged 
nobles, or the subtle policy of a worldly church with its 
far-reaching temporal ambitions, should be allowed to 
decide the question of the guilt of the accused private 
citizen ; but the facts should be found by the sound sense 
of twelve common men, his "peers," when they had heard 
the evidence, and the laws and customs of the land should 
then be fairly applied in every case. No wonder that a 
brilliant Englishman has declared that "the great end of the 
English Constitution is to get twelve honest men into a 
(jury) box!" 

Or that safeguard of personal rights so dear to countless 
generations of our ancestors, which finds expression in the 
phrase, "my house is my castle!" Remember how that 
principle was wrought into law and life, and kept there 
through ages in which flourished plundering baron-robbers 
and lawless soldiers! What countless unchronicled deeds 
of heroism on the part of obscure and forgotten ancestors 
of ours, who lost all, and dared death, rather than surrender 
this right ! — a right so precious to them and to us. 

Recall the horrors of arbitrary arrest, when by "lettres de 
cache f citizens were apprehended without pretense of trial, 
and mysteriously disappeared into the living sepulchres of 

10 



the Bastille; — and then recall with pride and joy the long 
contest which preceded in England, and has always accom- 
panied, that simple legal form, the protection of the unjustly 
imprisoned, in which the judge says to the officer of the 
law, "Do thou have his body before me, to show cause in 
court why he should be detained as a prisoner." Where is 
there a nobler battle-monument to victory won for personal 
liberty, than in the Latin phrase so heedlessly on our lips, 
the right of "habeas corpus?" 

Generations of self-denying and public-spirited effort on 
the part of our ancestors have made possible for us the 
free, secure life we live, under a government whose funda- 
mental law so fully "establishes justice, ensures domestic 
tranquillity, and promotes the general welfare." 

These guarantied rights of citizenship the American citi- 
zen by virtue of our Constitution, carries with him, 
wherever he may go, by land or sea. The exercise of abso- 
lute religious freedom in the choice of his form of wor- 
ship; and the assured right of citizens to assemble peace- 
fully and to petition the law-making branch of our govern- 
ment for such new laws, or such modifications of existing 
laws, as may seem desirable and needful, the Constitution 
guaranties to all. 

THE RULES OF THE GAME 

Why does not the "rule of the majority" in the United 
States lead to the anarchistic violation of all rights? Be- 
cause we have, and we obey, a Constitution in which the 
people have fixed by a great fundamental law just limita- 
tions upon the power of those who make, enforce and ad- 
minister the laws. Because we are an organized state — a 
government where the "rules of the game" are fixed in ad- 
vance, and are obeyed. The business and the great joyous 
game of living justly, kindly and helpfully along with other 
human beings, we carry on under clearly defined and uni- 
versally accepted "rules of the game" — under our Constitu- 
tion. Every great organic enterprise which men together 
undertake must have its constitution, its charter. And so 

11 



must the greatest, most important business, the most en- 
grossing and intensely interesting occupation the world 
knows anything about — the business of good government. 
To learn, and to practice well the art of being a good 
American citizen, one must know and must care for the 
Constitution — the "rules of the game" — the charter of our 
rights — the incorporating act of our business as a Nation. 
The worst enemies of our American system here in our 
own land are found among those who know nothing of our 
Constitution as a practical force in life. They are utterly 
ignorant of the spirit of our institutions. The firm main- 
tenance of law and order, they think of as tyranny. Red 
anarchists who have lived under European tyrannies and 
have learned to hate absolutism in an unjust autocracy — 
come into our life utterly blind and deaf to the justice and 
the vital importance of self-government. They knew noth- 
ing of obedience to law, voluntarily rendered, because the 
laws are made by the people who obey them. 

ALLEGIANCE TO LAV/, OR FREEDOM IS LOST 

It is only through the prevalence of the spirit of allegiance 
to law, that a free government like our own can con- 
tinue to exist. In 1831, that brilliant young Frenchman, 
de Tocqueville, after two years of residence among us to 
study our life and the spirit of our institutions, wrote thus 
of what he saw : "However irksome an enactment may be, 
the citizen of the United States complies with it, not only 
because it is the work of the majority, but because it is 
his own, and he regards it as a contract to which he is him- 
self a party." This spirit is the very essence of self-gov- 
erning representative government. Obey the laws you have 
yourselves made! Change the laws, by the methods you 
have yourselves prescribed, if you believe they should be 
altered. But obey them while they continue to be the law 
of the land. This feeling of allegiance to law because it is 
a just law which we the people have ourselves made, is a 
spirit utterly unknown to the anarchists who come to the 
United States from foreign tyrannies. In some way, their 
spirit of hatred for law and order must be overcome by 



our spirit of willing allegiance to laws we have made, or 
"government deriving its just powers from the consent of 
the governed ,, will cease to have a meaning! Yes, it will 
cease to exist ! Could a friendly observer write of us now, 
as de Tocqueville wrote then: "In the United States the 
numerous and turbulent multitude does not exist, who, 
regarding the law as their natural enemy look upon it with 
fear and distrust ?" Unless the true American spirit of 
willing allegiance to laws we ourselves make, can be kept 
strong enough to penetrate and pervade the mind and life of 
the multitudes who have come to us from Europe and Asia, 
ought we not to guard our gates and check the influx of 
others until we have more thoroughly assimilated the mass 
of those who have already come? 

Those anarchists and red socialists who have lived in 
states where tyrants made and enforced unjust laws and in 
governing disregarded all rights of the individual, have come 
to feel that anyone who loves liberty and stands for his 
rights, must be and should be "against the government." 
So they are "against law" — against government — in favor 
of red "internationalism." They are opposed to all true 
love of one's own country, one's own people, and one's own 
government. They have never experienced the good results 
of self-government through the people's chosen representa- 
tives, under a constitution which the people themselves 
have made, to render stable their own chosen form of gov- 
ernment. Such anarchists and "red-flag socialists"— mani- 
festly hostile to all that we hold sacred in government, 
should be sent back out of our country. To all our prin- 
ciples they are actively hostile. There is no place for them 
here in America. 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS 

The Constitution rightly provides protection for "freedom 
of speech and of the press." This is a right vital to the 
existence of an intelligent, self-governing people. We do 
well to guard it jealously. 

But there never was a right to "freedom of speech," or 
of printing, which justified persons in uttering or printing 

13 



''anything which they might wish to say." No one ever had 
a "right" to utter lies, to disseminate false reports, or to 
claim the protection of law and of the government while 
saying or printing that which advocates, defends, or directly 
tends to incite opposition to the reign of law and favors 
warfare upon established government! Nothing in history 
is more utterly unreasonable than is the position of the 
men and women who advocate violence and the destruction 
of all government, and yet claim that because "speech is 
free/' the very government they are trying to destroy is 
under obligation to "protect" them, in their efforts by speech 
and publication to destroy it! They are as unreasonable 
in their claim as would be an assassin who was trying to 
kill a policeman, should he demand of the other policemen 
who came running to the support of law and government, 
that they defend the assassin in his "rights" until he had 
entirely murdered the officer of the law, whom he was try- 
ing to kill! Always the right to "freedom of speech" is 
limited by the truth, and by due regard for facts as they are. 
And no citizen and no body of citizens, no newspaper and 
no "correspondent," ever had a right to claim the protection 
of a government in the manifest attempt by him to destroy 
all government in general, and the government that pro- 
tected him in particular. Not by mob violence should such 
violations of others' rights by unlicensed and untruthful 
speech be punished. But by due/process of law it should be 
prevented or duly punished. There was never a "right to 
lie." And no government was ever bound to aid, favor, 
and protect in their utterance of falsehoods, those who were 
trying to destroy the power whose protection they invoked. 
The hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have come 
to be dwellers in our country and under our government 
we must plan to make familiar with the principles of our 
Constitution. Get copies of it into their hands and start 
sympathetic study of its provisions, its methods, and its 
spirit of justice and universal brotherhood, in society gov- 
erned by laws which the people make and the people mean 
to obey, and mean to see obeyed by all who live under the 
protection of our laws! 

14 



WHY THE CONSTITUTION WAS ORDAINED 

After a struggle for independence, the hardest part of 
the battle for national life and a workable constitution 
often comes after the victory by arms has been won. With 
us, after we had won from England by force of arms the 
Independence for which we made our Declaration to the 
world in 1776, there followed seven years after the peace 
of 1783 which were fraught with dangers to our young 
Republic even more threatening than the risks of the seven 
years of war which preceded them. The thirteen independ- 
ent Colonies, each conscious of its own peculiar and charac- 
teristic history and institutions and inclined to be jealous 
of its neighbors, had won the war by co-operation under 
the vague authority of the Continental Congress and the 
Articles of Confederation. The powers of the Confederate 
Government thus formed were entirely inadequate to the 
task of setting up and maintaining a Union which could 
successfully govern a continent, and hold together millions 
of people in a state which should command the respect of 
the world. On February 25, 1787, James Madison wrote: 
"Our situation is becoming every day more and more criti- 
cal. No money comes into the federal treasury ; no respect 
is paid to the federal authority; and people of reflection 
unanimously agree that the existing Confederacy is totter- 
ing to its foundation." On April 8th he wrote : "I hold it 
for a fundamental point, that an individual independence 
of the states is utterly irreconcilable with the idea of an 
aggregate sovereignty." "Let it be tried, then, whether any 
middle ground can be taken, which will at once support" a 
due supremacy of the national authority, and leave in force 
the local authorities so far as they can be subordinately 
useful." 

In opening the main business in the Constitutional Con- 
vention called to form a more perfect union, and assembled 
in 1787, four years after peace was declared, Edmund Ran- 
dolph proceeded to enumerate the defects of the old Con- 
federation. (See the "Debates" in the "Madison Papers.") 

He said: "The Confederation produced no security 
against foreign invasion, Congress not being permitted to 

15 



prevent war, nor to support it by its own authority." "Con- 
gress could not cause infraction of treaties, nor of the law 
of nations, to be punished ; particular states might, by their 
conduct, provoke war without control." "The Federal gov- 
ernment could not check the quarrels between states, nor a 
rebellion, in any, not having constitutional power or means 
to interpose, according to the exigency." The Federal gov- 
ernment could not defend itself against encroachments from 
the states. "It was not even paramount to the state con- 
stitutions, ratified as it was in many of the states." 

"WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES" 

This last criticism of Mr. Randolph's illustrates the con- 
viction which prevailed generally in the Convention, that 
the Union, to be permanent and powerful, must rest upon 
the authority of the people of the United States regarded 
as one nation, and not upon any authority which the indi- 
vidual states, through their state legislatures, and by virtue 
of their state constitutions, might attempt to bestow upon it. 
Mr. Madison expressed the common conviction in these 
words: "To give the new system its proper energy, it will 
be desirable to have it ratified by the authority of the people, 
and not merely by that of the legislatures." 

Let us always bear in mind the fact that the Government 
of the United States is a National Government, and rests 
upon a Constitution which derives its authority from the 
people of the United States, and not from the governments 
of the thirteen Colonies which rebelled against England, 
and at first claimed recognition and authority as thirteen 
independent sovereign states. For a few years, these 
thirteen independent sovereignties were acting merely as a 
Confederation, But the people, under our system the ulti- 
mate sovereign power of the United States, through the 
work of the Convention to frame a Constitution, and the 
ratification of that Constitution by the people, distinctly 
declared, "We, the people of the United States, * * * 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America/' 

10 



THE NATION AND THE STATES 

After 1789, when the government of the United States 
was set up under the Constitution, the several states of the 
Union were no longer "independent and sovereign states." 
The state governments are the recognized means and instru- 
mentalities which the people of the United States have 
chosen to recognize and to continue in existence, that these 
state governments may exercise authority in the ways and 
along the lines which the people of the United States have 
chosen to leave to the state governments. This leaves- to 
the states only a strictly limited sovereignty, in matters 
local, within a sphere specifically assigned to state govern- 
ments by the sovereign people of the United States. Since 
1865, the manifest intention of the founders of the Consti- 
tution has been fully recognized as the true American faith 
and doctrine, namely, that the United States is one nation, 
and that the people of the United States, acting through 
their fundamental law, the Constitution, are the sovereign 
power of the United States. 

Article VI, Sec. 2, of the Constitution, provides that 
"this Constitution, and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, 
or which shall be made, under the authority of the United 
States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges 
in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the con- 
stitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing." 

Doubly to insure this supreme authority of the Federal 
Constitution and the Federal laws, it is provided in a fol- 
lowing section (Art. VI, Sec. 3) that "The Senators and 
Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the 
several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial 
officers, both of the United States and of the several states, 
shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support this Con- 
stitution." 



17 



READ, MARK, AND LEARN 

Our Constitution is the very heart and life of the nation 
we love. Other nations the world over have copied it. 
Evidently, our fathers expected the people of the United 
States to be familiar with the Constitution in all its essen- 
tial provisions. Yet there have been thousands of office- 
holders, under the Federal government and the forty-eight 
state governments of the Union, who have sworn to support 
the Constitution, yet have never once read it through! 
In an average audience of a thousand Americans, how many 
will you find who have a copy of the Constitution within 
reach? How many who have "never read it?" Every 
good American ought to have a copy of it for his own use, 
easily accessible for reference. 

When foreigners wish to become American citizens, the 
judge who examines them for their naturalization papers 
is required to have good evidence that the applicant is 
"attached to the principles of our government. ,, How many 
of the principles of our government could you state clearly? 

There is a great revival of interest in the Constitution, in 
these last few years. Now that hundreds and thousands of 
women are preparing to vote intelligently, while tens of 
thousands of Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls are inform- 
ing themselves upon questions of government, it is coming 
to be regarded as more and more manifestly the duty of 
every man and woman, to know the essential provisions of 
our Constitution. 

THE CONSTITUTION AND THE WORKINGMAN 

Especially should every workingman and woman become 
familiar with the Constitution. It is the workingman's best 
friend. It not only protects him in his personal freedom 
and his political rights, it assures to him the full and regular 
payment of the wages he contracts to work for. It pro- 
tects his savings. It guards his home. It respects and pro- 
tects his family life. Courts and the judges by some of 
whose decisions he sometimes has felt himself aggrieved, 
are nevertheless the workingman's best friends. It is by 

18 



the keen sense of justice and the trained intelligence of our 
judges, that the workingman is protected against the ruinous 
effects of misguided attempts at legislation which would 
(if it could) set aside or overthrow the safeguards with 
which our fundamental law has surrounded us. It is the 
careful and just administration of our government, guarded 
and insured by our courts, that keeps our national, life 
secure. 



THE CONSTITUTION AND THE COURTS 

The power intrusted by the Constitution to our 
Supreme Court, to pass judgment upon the constitutionality 
of any state or federal law which in a definite case involving 
the application of the lav/, is duly brought before the court, 
and to declare unconstitutional any provisions in such a law 
which would ignore or violate any provision of the Consti- 
tution — is the crowning glory of our American system. 
This has been and still is the surest safeguard for the lib- 
erties and the rights of each one of us, citizens of the 
United States. The Constitution lays down the essential 
principles and prescribes the form and functions of our 
government. It is, as it should be, comparatively brief. 
It deals only with essential provisions which are universally 
applicable throughout the extent of the nation and for long 
periods of time. It is not meant to be easily altered. The 
Constitution is created and adopted by the people, and is 
the supreme conditioning law of our national state. The 
manifold enactments of Congress and of the state legisla- 
tures in their sphere, are valid only when they conform to 
the Constitution — our Supreme National Law. Of course 
it is essential to our system that we have a Supreme Court 
to decide whether enactments of these various lawmaking 
bodies are in harmony with the principles and the pro- 
visions of the Constitution. 

Study the Constitution. See how the law and the courts 
protect you. Let no demagogue persuade you to advocate 
changes which would make it impossible for our courts to 
have strong and fearless judges to continue to defend us 

19 



in our constitutional rights. That any man who has suc- 
ceeded in securing an election to the Senate of the United 
States could so utterly fail to understand the essential spirit 
of the Constitution he has sworn to support, as to be capable 
of proposing a law to impeach and remove any judge who 
should pronounce a bill passed by Congress "unconstitu- 
tional," is one of the wonders of American politics ! 

THE GLORY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 
CITIZENSHIP 

It is no small thing to be a citizen of the world's greatest 
Republic! It is a great responsibility to be a voter here. 
You want to know your privileges and your power as an 
American voter; and you want to know your duties and 
responsibilities, as well as your rights, under the Constitu- 
tion. Think them out, for yourself, as you read and study 
the clear provisions of our great fundamental law. We 
cannot all be learned constitutional lawyers. But every 
American citizen, man or woman, young or old, may have 
and should have an intelligent idea of our form of repre- 
sentative government "of the people, by the people, for the 
people." Every one of us should know and should value 
the security it guarantees to each of us in guarding for us 
our enjoyment of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." 

Let each one of us have a copy of our title-deed to our 
rights as American citizens. Let us read, think about, and 
discuss with our friends, the Constitution which is the char- 
ter of our National Life. Study its principles. Know it! 
Then we shall love it! Do not fancy that you can play 
well the great game of American life, without knowing the 
Rules of the Game! One flag, one country, one nation! 
Let us love our own country, honor our own flag ! Not for 
us the red flag of a false and anarchistic internationalism; 
but the Red, White and Blue for which our fathers and 
brothers and sons have died; under which, please God, we 
will live, and for which if need be we will die — faithful to 
the brotherhood of the whole human race, by being first 
of all faithful to our own home, our own family, our own 
community, and to the land we love! 

20 



Let us live, as the inscription on the monument to the 
Three Hundred Spartans at Thermopylae says they died. 
They willingly, valiantly, and with the most fearless and 
confident alacrity, gave up their lives in the narrow pass, 
three hundred of them, to hold back the tens of thousands 
of Asiatics who were threatening to overwhelm the liberty 
and civilization of Europe. Many of our sons and brothers 
have in these last two years died willingly in a like struggle 
to defend liberty and the reign of law against tyranny and 
brute force. The epitaph on the monument of the death- 
less Three Hundred who made the stand at Thermopylae 
which saved their native land, all Europe, and our own 
Western civilization, was these words : " Stranger, go tell 
the Lacedemonians that we lie here, obedient to their laws!" 

So let us live for Freedom and Good Government — 
willingly "obedient to our laws." 



21 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

PREAMBLE. 
Objects for which the Constitution was established. 

ARTICLE L 

The Legislative Power. 

Section 1. The Congress of the United States. 

Section 2. The House of Representatives. 

Section 3. The Senate. 

Section 4. Election of Senators and Representatives — Meetings of 
"Congress. 

Section 5. Powers and Duties of Each House — Journals — Ad- 
journments. 

Section 6. Compensation of Senators and Representatives — Privi- 
lege from Arrest — Freedom of Speech and Debate — 
Holding Other Offices. 

Section 7. Process of Legislation — President's Veto Power. 

Section 8. Enumerated Powers of Congress. 

Section 9. Prohibitions and Limitations on Powers of Congress. 

Section 10. Restrictions on Powers of the States. 



Section 



Section 
Section 

Section 



ARTICLE II. 

The Executive Power. 



Office — Election — Qualifica- 
President — Compensation — 



1. The President— Term of 
tions — Succession of Vice 
Oath of Office. 

2. Enumerated Powers and Duties of President. 

3. Relations of President with Congress — Diplomatic Busi- 
ness — Execution of the Laws. 

4. Impeachment of President and Other Officers. 



ARTICLE III. 

The Judicial Power. 

Section 1. Supreme Court of the United States and Other Federal 
Courts — Tenure of Judges — Compensation. 

Section 2. Jurisdiction of United States Courts— ^Original and Ap- 
pellate Jurisdiction of Supreme Court — Trial by Jury — 
Place of Trial. 

Section 3. Treason against the United States — Definition and 
Punishment. 



22 



ARTICLE IV. 

Interstate Relations. 

Section 1. Full Faith and Credit to Public Acts, Records, and 

Proceedings. 
Section 2. Interstate Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship — 

Extradition — Fugitive Slaves. 
Section 3. Admission and Formation of New States — Public Lands. 
Section 4. Guaranty of Republican Government — Protection of 

States against Invasion and Domestic Violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

Amendment of the Constitution. 

Proposal of Amendments by Congress — Convention for Propos- 
ing Amendments — Ratification of Amendments. 

ARTICLE VI. 

Miscellaneous Provisions. 

Validity of the Public Debt — The Constitution the Supreme Law 
of the Land — Oath of Public Officers to Support the Constitution — 
No Religious Test Required. 

ARTICLE VII. 
Ratification and Establishment of the Constitution 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

WE The People of the United States, in Order to form a 
more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic 
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote 
the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Lib- 
erty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall 
be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall 
consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 

23 



Section 2, The House of Representatives shall be com- 
posed of Members chosen every second Year by the People 
of the several Statesf, and the Electors in each State shall 
have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most 
numerous Branch of the State Legislature. 

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have 
attained to the Age of twenty-five Years, and been seven 
Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, 
when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he 
shall be chosen. 

*[ Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned 
among the several States which may be included within this 
Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall 
be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Per- 
sons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, 
and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other 
Persons.] The actual Enumeration shall be made within 
three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the 
United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten 
Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The 
Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every 
thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one 
Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, 
the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse 
three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence 
Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jer- 
sey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, 
Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and 
Georgia three. 



*The clause included in brackets is amended by the 14th 
amendment, 2d section, p. 41. 

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any 
State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs 
of Election tQ fill such Vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker 
and other Officers ; and shall have the sole Power of Im- 
peachment. 

24 



Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be 
composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the 
Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall 
have one Vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence 
of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may 
be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the 
first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second 
year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth 
Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth 
Year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; 
and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, dur- 
ing the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Execu- 
tive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the 
next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such 
Vacancies. 

No Person shall be a Senator w r ho shall not have attained 
to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen 
of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be 
an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

The Vice President of the United States shall be Presi- 
dent of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be 
equally divided. 

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a 
President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice Presi- 
dent, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of 
the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Im- 
peachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be 
-on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the 
United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And 
no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of 
two thirds of the Members present. 

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend fur- 
ther than to removal from Office, and disqualification to 
hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under 
the United States : but the Party convicted shall neverthe- 
less be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment 
and Punishment, according to Law. 

25 



Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding 
Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be pre- 
scribed in each State by the Legislature thereof ; but the 
Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regu- 
lations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, 
and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in Decem- 
ber, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day. 

Section 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elec- 
tions, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and 
a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Busi- 
ness; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, 
and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent 
Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each 
House may provide. 

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, 
punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the 
Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. 

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and 
from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts 
as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas 
and Nays of the Members of either House on any question 
shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those present, be entered 
on the Journal. 

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, 
without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than 
three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the 
two Houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. The Senators and Representatives shall re- 
ceive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained 
by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. 
They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach 
of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their At- 
tendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in 
going to and returning from the same ; and for any Speech 
or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in 
any other Place. 

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for 
which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under 

26 



the Authority of the United States, which shall have been 
created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been en- 
creased during such time ; and no Person holding any 
Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either 
House during his Continuance in Office. 

Section 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in 
the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose 
or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. 

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, 
be presented to the President of the United States; If he 
approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with 
his Objections to that House in which it shall have orig- 
inated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their 
Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Recon- 
sideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the 
Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the 
other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and 
if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a 
Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall 
be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the 
Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on 
the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall 
not be returned by the President within ten Days ( Sundays 
excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the 
Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, 
unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Re- 
turn, in which Case it shall not be a Law. 

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concur- 
rence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be 
necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be 
presented to the President of the United States ; and before 
the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or 
being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to 
the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. 

Section 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and 
collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts 
and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare 

27 



of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises 
shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; 

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among 
the several States, and with the Indian Tribes ; 

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uni- 
form Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the 
United States; 

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of for- 
eign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures ; 

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Se- 
curities and current Coin of the United States ; 

To establish Post Offices and post Roads; 

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by 
securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the 
exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Dis- 
coveries ; 

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court ; 

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on 
the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations ; 

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, 
and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; 

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of 
Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two 
Years ; 

To provide and maintain a Navy ; 

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of 
the land and naval Forces ; 

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the 
Laws of the Union* suppress Insurrections and repel In- 
vasions ; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the 
Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be 
employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to 
the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, 
and the Authority of training the Militia according to the 
discipline prescribed by Congress ; 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, 
over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as 
may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance 

28 



of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the 
United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places 
purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State 
in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, 
Magazines, Arsenals, dock- Yards, and other needful Build- 
ings ; — And 

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper 
for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all 
other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government 
of the United States, or in any Department or Officer 
thereof. 

Section 9. The Migration or Importation of such Per- 
sons as any of the States now existing shall think proper 
to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to 
the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax 
or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceed- 
ing ten dollars for each Person. 

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be 
suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion 
the public Safety may require it. 

No Bill of Attainder or expost facto Law shall be passed. 

No Capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless 
in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before 
directed to be taken. 

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from 
any State. 

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Com- 
merce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of 
another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, 
be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. 

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in 
Consequence of Appropriations made by Law ; and a regu- 
lar Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expendi- 
tures of all public Money shall be published from time 
to time. 

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United 
States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or 
Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Con- 

29 



gress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, 
of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign 
State. 

Section 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alli- 
ance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and 
Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any 
Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of 
Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or 
Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any 
Title of Nobility. 

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay 
any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what 
may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection 
Laws : and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid 
by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use 
of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws 
shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Con- 
gress. 

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any 
Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of 
Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another 
State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless 
actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not 
admit of delay, 

ARTICLE II. 

Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States of America. He shall hold 
his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together 
with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be 
elected, as follows 

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legisla- 
ture thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to 
the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to 
which the State may be entitled in the Congress : but no 
Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of 
Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed 
an Elector. 

30 



["The electors shall meet in their respective States, and 
vote by ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall 
not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. 
And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, 
and of the Number of Votes for each ; which List they shall 
sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the 
Government of the United States, directed to the President 
of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the 
Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open 
all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. 
The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be 
the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole 
Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than 
one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of 
Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately 
chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Per- 
son have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List 
the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. 
But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by 
States, the Representation from each State having one 
Vote ; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Mem- 
ber or Members from two-thirds of the States, and a Ma- 
jority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In 
every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person 
having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall 
be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or 
more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from 
them by Ballot the Vice-President."] 

(This clause has been superseded by the twelfth amend- 
ment, p. 39.) 

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the 
Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes ; 
which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of 
the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Con- 
stitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President ; neither 
shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not 
have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been 
fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. 

31 



In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or 
of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the 
Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve 
on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law pro- 
vide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation, or In- 
ability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring 
what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer 
shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a 
President shall be elected. 

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his 
Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased 
nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have 
been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period 
any other Emolument from the United States, or any of 
them. 

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall 
take the following Oath or Affirmation: — "I do solemnly 
swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office 
of President of the United States, and will to the best of 
my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution 
of the United States/' 

Section 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief 
of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the 
Militia of the several States, when called into the actual 
Service of the United States ; he may require the Opinion, 
in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive 
Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of 
their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant 
Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United 
States, except in Cases of Impeachment. 

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Con- 
sent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds 
of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, and 
by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall 
appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, 
Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the 
United States, whose Appointments are not herein other- 
wise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: 
but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of 

32 



such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President 
alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Depart- 
ments. 

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies 
that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by grant- 
ing Commissions which shall expire at the End of their 
next Session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Con- 
gress Information of the State of the Union, and recom- 
mend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall 
judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary 
Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in 
Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the 
Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time 
as he shall think proper ; he shall receive Ambassadors and 
other public Ministers ; he shall take Care that the Laws be 
faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers 
of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil 
Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office 
on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, 
or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE HI. 

Section 1. The judicial Power of the United States, 
shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior 
Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and 
establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and 
shall, at stated Thnes, receive for their Services, a Com- 
pensation, which shall not be diminished during their Con- 
tinuance in Office. 

Section 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, 
in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the 
Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which 
shall be made, under their Authority; — to all Cases affect- 
ing Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls ; — to 
all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction ; — to Con- 

33 



troversies to which the United States shall be a Party ; — to 
Controversies between two or more States ;— between a 
State and Citizens of another State; — between Citizens of 
different States, — between Citizens of the same State 
claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and be- 
tween a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, 
Citizens or Subjects. 

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers 
and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, 
the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all 
the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall 
have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with 
such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Con- 
gress shall make. 

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, 
shall be by Jury ; and such Trial shall be held in the State 
where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but 
when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at 
such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have 
directed. 

Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall con- 
sist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to 
their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person 
shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of 
two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in 
open Court. 

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punish- 
ment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work 
Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life 
of the Person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each 
State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings 
of every other State. And the Congress may by general 
Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records 
and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. 

Section 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled 
to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several 
States. 

34 



A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or 
other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in 
another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority 
of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be 
removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under 
the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Conse- 
quence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged 
from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on 
Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may 
be due. 

Section 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress 
into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected 
within the Jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be 
formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of 
States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States 
concerned as well as of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make 
all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory 
or other Property belonging to the United States; and 
nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to 
Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any par- 
ticular State. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every 
State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and 
shall protect each of them against Invasion ; and on Appli- 
cation of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the 
Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. 

ARTICLE V. ? 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall 
deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Con- 
stitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two 
thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for pro- 
posing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid 
to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, 
when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the 
several States, or Fy Conventions in three fourths thereof, 

35 



as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be pro- 
posed by the Congress ; Provided that no Amendment which 
may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hun- 
dred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and 
fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; 
and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived 
of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, be- 
fore the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid 
against the United States under this Constitution, as under 
the Confederation. 

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States 
which shall be made in Pursuance thereof ; and all Treaties 
made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the 
United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land ; and 
the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing 
in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary 
notwithstanding. 

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and 
the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all ex- 
ecutive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and 
of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirma- 
tion, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test 
shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or 
public Trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VlU 

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall 
be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution be- 
tween the States so ratifying the Same. 
Done) in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the 
States present the Seventeenth Day of September in 
the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
Eighty seven, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the Twelfth. 

36 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

I. Religious Freedom — Freedom of Speech and Press — Right 

of Assembly and Petition. 
II. The Militia — Right to Keep and Bear Arms. 

III. Quartering of Soldiers. 

IV. Security Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures — 
Search Warrants. 

V. Right to Indictment by Grand Jury — Twice in Jeopardy — 
Privilege against Self-Crimination — Protection of Life, 
Liberty, and Property by Due Process of Law — Taking 
Private Property for Public Use. 
VI. Rights of Accused in Criminal Trials. 
VII. Trial by Jury in Civil Cases. 

VIII. Prohibition of Excessive Bail or Fines, and Cruel and 
Unusual Punishments. 
IX. Reservation of Rights of the People. 

X. Powers Not Delegated are Reserved to the States or the 
People. 
XL Exemption of States from Suits by Citizens. 
XII. Manner of Electing President and Vice President. 

XIII. Abolition of Slavery and Involuntary Servitude. 

XIV. Definition of United States Citizenship — Privileges and Im- 
munities of Citizens not to be Abridged by States — Guar- 
anty of Due Process of Law — Equal Protection of the 
Laws — Apportionment of Representatives in Congress — 
Disqualification for Office by Insurrection or Rebellion — 
Removal of Disabilities — Validity of the Public Debt. 

XV. Right of Suffrage not to be Denied on Account of Race, 
Color, or Previous Servitude. 
XVI. Levy of Income Tax Without Apportionment. 
XVII. Popular Election of Senators. 
XVIII. National Prohibition. 

ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF, THE CON- 
STITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PRO- 
POSED BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES 
OF THE SEVERAL STATES PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTI- 
CLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

[ARTICLE T.] 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the 
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition 
the Government for a redress of grievances. 

37 



[ARTICLE IL] 

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security 
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear 
Arms, shall not be infringed. 

[ARTICLE IIL] 

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any 
house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of 
war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 

[ARTICLE IV.] 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches, 
and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall 
issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or af- 
firmation, and particularly describing the place to be 
searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

[ARTICLE V.] 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or other- 
wise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indict- 
ment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or 
naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in 
time of War or public danger ; nor shall any person be sub- 
ject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of 
life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any Criminal Case 
to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, 
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use, without just com- 
pensation. 

[ARTICLE VI.] 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the 
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of 
the State and district wherein the crime shall have been 
committed, which district shall have been previously ascer- 

38 



tained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause 
of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses 
against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining Wit- 
nesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel 
for his defence. 

[ARTICLE VII. ] 

In suits at comrnqn law, where the value in controversy 
shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall 
be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise 
re-examined in any Court of the United States, than accord- 
ing to the rules of the common law. 

[ARTICLE VIII.] 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines 
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

[ARTICLE IX.] 

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, 
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained 
by the people. 

[ARTICLE X.] 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved 
to the States respectively, or to the people. 

[ARTICLE XL] 

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be con- 
strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced 
or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens 
of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign 
State. 

[ARTICLE XII.] 

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and 
vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of 

39 



whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state 
with themselves ; they shall name in their ballots the person 
voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct 
lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all per- 
sons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of 
votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United 
States, directed to the President of the Senate ; — The Presi- 
dent of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the 
votes shall then be counted ; — The person having the great- 
est number of votes for President, shall be the President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of 
Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, 
then from the persons having the highest numbers not ex- 
ceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, 
the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by 
ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the 
votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each 
state having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall con- 
sist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, 
and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a 
choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not 
choose a President whenever the right of choice shall de- 
volve upon them, before the fourth day of March next 
following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, 
as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability 
of the President. The person having the greatest number 
of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if 
such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors 
appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the 
two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the 
Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of 
two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority 
of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no 
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President 
shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United 
States. 

40 



[ARTICLE XIII.]- 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United 
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this 
article by appropriate legislation. 

[ARTICLE XIV.] 

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens 
of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge 
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any 
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the 
laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among 
the several States according to their respective numbers, 
counting the whole number of persons in each State, ex- 
cluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at 
any election for the choice of electors for President and 
Vice President of the United States, Representatives in 
Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or 
the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of 
the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years 
of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other 
crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced 
in the proportion which the number of such male citizens 
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one 
years of age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representa- 
tive in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, 
or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, 
or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, 
as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United 

41 



States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an 
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insur- 
rection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or com- 
fort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of 
two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United 
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for pay- 
ment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing 
insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But 
neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay 
any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or 
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss 
or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obliga- 
tions and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by 
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

[ARTICLE XV.] 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to 
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States 
or by any State on account of race, color, or previous con- 
dition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce 
this article by appropriate legislation. 

[ARTICLE XVI.] 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on 
incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportion- 
ment among the several States, and without regard to any 
census or enumeration. 

[ARTICLE XVII] 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, 
for six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. The 

42 



electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite 
for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legis- 
latures. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State 
in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall 
issue writs of election to fill such vacancies : Provided^ That 
the legislature of any State may empower the executive 
thereof to make temporary appointments until the people 
fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to afifect the 
election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes 
valid as a part of the Constitution. 

[ARTICLE XVIII.] 

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this 
article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxi- 
cating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the 
exportation thereof from the United States and all territory 
subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is 
hereby prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall 
have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall 
have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by 
the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the 
Constitution, within seven years from the date of the sub- 
mission hereof to the States by the Congress. 



43 



BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR READING AND REFER- 

ENCE. 

Story, Commentaries on the Constitution. (A comprehensive 
exposition of the Constitution, not only on its technical and 
legal side, but from the point of view of history and for its popu- 
lar understanding, by Joseph Story, a former Justice of the 
Supreme Court.) 

The Federalist. (A series of papers, written in explanation 
and defense of the Constitution, at the time when it was before 
the States for adoption, by Alexander Hamilton and James 
Madison.) 

Madison's Journal of the Convention. (Edited by Gaillard 
Hunt.) (A contemporary record of the doings and debates of 
the Convention which framed the Constitution, by James Madi- 
son, called the "Father of the Constitution.") 

Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution. (A popular ac- 
count of the formation of the Constitution, by Professor Max 
Farrand of Yale.) 

Bartlett, Handy Book of American Government. (A brief and 
popular description of the institutions and operations of the 
government of the United States, following the order of the 
Constitution.) 

Hill, The People's Government. (An exposition of the sys- 
tem of constitutional government in the United States, with 
special reference to the fundamental rights of individuals, the 
supremacy of law, and the relation of the citizen to the state, 
By David Jayne Hill.) 

Hill, Americanism: What It Is. (An account of those prin- 
ciples and features of our system of government which make 
"Americanism" a distinctive creed and institution, with a study 
of the rights, duties and responsibilities of American citizenship. 
By David Jayne Hill.) 

Baker, Fundamental Law of American Constitutions. (A 
series of lectures, discussing the principles and practice of 
American constitutional government in the light of history and 
the decisions of the courts. In three volumes.) 

Bryce, The American Commonwealth. (A comprehensive but 
popular description of the organization and working of govern- 
ment in the United States and the States, and of American polit- 
ical institutions, by James Bryce, now Viscount Bryce, former 
British ambassador to the United States.) 

44 



Lieber, Civil Liberty and Self Government. (An account of 
the origins and establishment of the principles of civil and polit- 
ical liberty under constitutional government, with a valuable 
appendix of original documents. By Francis Lieber.) 

Lodge, The Democracy of the Constitution. (Essays and ad- 
dresses on important aspects of the Constitution. By United 
States Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.) 

Sutherland, Constitutional Power and World Affairs. (Lec- 
tures on the extent and limitation of the powers conferred by 
the Constitution as affecting war and the making of treaties. 
By former United States Senator George Sutherland.) 

Black, The Relation of the Executive Power to Legislation. 
(An essay on the growth and development of the executive 
power in its relation to the initiation and enactment of the 
laws. By Henry Campbell Black, Editor of The Constitutional 
Review.) 

The Constitutional Review. (A quarterly magazine, advocat- 
ing the maintenance of constitutional government and recording 
its progress at home and abroad.) 

PAMPHLETS. 

Relating to the Constitution or the principles of constitutional 
government, which will be furnished on request by THE NA- 
TIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOV- 
ERNMENT, 716 Colorado Building, Washington, D. C. 

"The Constitution and Its Makers," by Senator Henry Cabot 
Lodge. 

"Representative Government and the Common Law," by Em- 
met O'Neal, former Governor of Alabama. 

"A Defense of the Constitution," by David Jayne Hill. 

"How the Constitution Saved the Revolution," by Gaillard 
Hunt. 

"What the Constitution Does for the Citizen," by Henry A. 
Wise Wood. 

"The Enemy Within Our Gates; Bolshevism's Assault upon 
American Government/' by Henry Campbell Black. 



45 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



III 

022 021 633 

NATIONAL ASSOCIA'i iuin ruK 
CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

716-17 COLORADO BUILDING 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AIM5 OF THE. ASSOCIATION 

It is the object of the Association to propagate a wider 
and more accurate knowledge of the Constitution of the 
United States, and of the distinctive features of constitu- 
tional government as conceived by the founders of the 
Republic. 

To inculcate an intelligent and genuine respect for the 
organic law of the land. 

To bring the minds of the people to a realization of the 
vital necessity of preserving it unimpaired, and particularly 
in respect to its broad limitations upon the legislative 
power and its guaranties of the fundamental rights of life, 
liberty and property. 

To oppose attempted changes in it which tend to 
destroy or impair the efficacy of those guaranties, or which 
are not founded upon the mature consideration and delib- 
erate choice of the people as a whole. 

As the aim of the Association is patriotic rather than 
partisan, it feels warranted in appealing to all citizens who 
value the institutions inherited from our fathers. 

MEMBERSHIP DUES 

Annual Membership --. - - $ 2.00 

Sustaining Membership - - 5.00 

Life Membership - - - 100.00 

Membership entitles the holder to "The Constitutional 

Review," a valuable quarterly published bv the Association. 

OFFICERS 
DAVID JAYNE HILL CHARLES RAY DEAN 

President Corresponding Secretary 

ARCHIBALD HOPKINS JOHN JOY EDSON 

First Vice-President Treasurer 

CHARLES W. AMES HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK 

Second Vice-President Editor 



